Bernard Rimland, Bobby Kennedy Jr., Andy Wakefield and now Donald Trump -- yes he does! -- represent a kind of mainstream thread of vaccine safety advocacy. The first three put themselves forward and paid a price – Rimland went from the father of “autism isn’t caused by parenting” to being considered a fringe quack kook multivitamins cure autism kind of guy. Bobby went from respected environmental Riverkeeper Kennedy scion who beat GE and got the Hudson cleaned up to mercury-thimerosal-obsessed.

Donald Trump was inaugurated as president Friday, saying what Bernie said. And if ever a paragraph break was called for (pick your reason) this is it.

Dr. Bernie Rimland conspiracy theorist fringe quack kook. And Andy, well, Andy didn’t even pass go – he was considered a fraudulent finge quack kook from just about Day 1.

Covering autism through the prism of an environmental illness, with vaccine safety a paramount issue, I do have more familiarity with these four folks than I might otherwise. Bernie was an indifferent dresser with a messy beard (me too) who, at least in my memory, thundered with the truth. My single favorite quote in my decade on this beat is his statement that “The autism epidemic is real, and excessive vaccinations are the cause.” This is brilliantly simple, stark and bold. First you have to stipulate that autism has increased exponentially (it has – that’s the subject of Mark Blaxill and my book out later this year). Then you have to be both narrow enough – pointing not just to some vague chemical or environmental exposure – and broad enough – pointing not just to one vaccine, or one ingredient – to survive the onslaught of denial and rebuke and phony science you can expect the minute you say such a thing. (“Excessive vaccinations” even leaves room for mercury as the prime cause, because if they hadn’t added all those vaccines with mercury, kids wouldn’t have gotten enough of it to cause an epidemic – bad as it is at any dose The MMR also fits -- three live viruses in one, and now a fourth in the MMRV; talk about excessive!)

Lately I’ve been thinking of Bernie, as a new president who says much the same thing takes the oath of office; protecting our kids might be described as Job One. Now that he is one day in office I certainly hope that he will take on the issue and bring Bernie’s claim front and center. I think our collective minds were pretty much blown when he summoned Bobby to the Tower and sent him down with some sort of message, garbled or tentative as it may have been, that he intends to tackle vaccines and autism and that people like Bobby are going to play a major role.

What’s more, before the election Trump met with Andy and some kindred spirits who are editors and sponsors of this blog and listened attentively.

These are huge developments that have been a bit overwhelmed – perhaps by presidential-elect design – by the whole shakeup going on in the transfer of power. More than trial balloons, less that full-fledged policy initiatives, they have made the CDC quake in its cesspool, if that’s possible, and the usual talking heads like Offit and Schaffner turn purple with rage (makes me think of Dylan: “The man standing next to me, his head was exploding. Well, I was praying the pieces wouldn't fall on me.”) The mainstream media is both outraged and, one senses, outgunned at the moment. Who cares about the mainstream media anyway? The best story we got out of the Kennedy meeting was from BuzzFeed, which interviewed both me (I?) and J.B. Handley and, except for repeating the antivax canard (which I told them not to in writing) treated the event as news, not as a crime scene. While I was on the phone with them going through security at National Airport, Nature magazine was on the other line. Quite a moment for a humble blogger.

Everyone comes to this issue from a different perspective, although of course for most it’s witnessing or understanding the fact that vaccine damage is much more frequent and much more serious than the “experts” will admit. For Bobby it was understanding the damage of environmental mercury and hearing from enough autism moms to intuit the connection. For Andy it was a call from the mother of two autistic children in England. He tried to interrupt and refer her on to the neurodevelopmental department, but then she started talking about strange GI issues they had, and, thank God, he stopped to listen.

For Bernie it was the recognition that he and his wife were not bad enough parents to have caused their son Mark’s nonstop screaming as an infant and his subsequent odd behaviors. That opened into an insight that autism was not genetic but environmental, and that led into vaccines.

We’ve had committees and commissions before – Mark Blaxill served on one and, with Barbara Loe Fisher, valiantly dissented from its blue ribbon inanity. (See the excellent “From Safety Last to Children First.”)

So however they – and we – got here, the moment is ripe, and Bernie’s dictum ought to be our guiding principle, one we can unite behind. I hope that before long the president will be sitting at a table with Bobby and Andy and many more people, including Mark and Barbara, who have fought long and hard to bring this issue to the fore. And I hope they leave an empty chair for Bernie and that, at least occasionally, everyone looks in its direction and remembers that there is much more common in our cause than anything we might occasionally fight over – that the autism epidemic is real, and excessive vaccinations are the cause.

Comments

Former CDC director said this on retiring, I've added the obvious.

“I've always made career decisions based on one simple question—how can I save the most lives, [and ignore the deaths and injuries from vaccinations]” Frieden said. “That's the question I'll ask going forward.”

I should have included the standing policy of all American Hospitals (explicitly cited in numerous CDC documents, etc.) of implementing the HepB/HBIG Immunization Schedule on the day of birth of Premature (Pre-Term) infants, almost without exception, DESPITE these infants weighing but a fraction of Full-Term births, and far, far more fragile, immature development. Per one of the relevant and honest statistics of the CDC almost 10% of American babies are now pre-term, yet treated as full-term when it comes to sacred immunization policy.

ALL of these toxic vaccine/HBIG injections into three or four pound "premies" are .50 ml, which is the typical vaccine dose for full grown adults weighing hundreds of pounds.

Barry, you make an extremely important point as to newborns being taken away for hours after birth.

For instance, and it's not on the Immunization Schedule, the HBIG shot (Hep B Immunoglobulin) of .50 ml is injected along with the Hep B vaccine, and almost certainly without informed consent, per "standing orders." This INSANE shot is foreign "immunoglobulin" of some human's blood testing to have high Hep B antibody titers, AND, with other toxic excipients and possibly also having unknown toxic contaminants contained therein.

Also, the Vitamin K shot, and containing other chemicals, is almost certainly injected without informed consent, possibly also having toxic contaminants, and being entirely foreign to a newborn's system.

AND, these shots are on top of over 50% of mothers priorly receiving (coerced by their pediatricians) a Thimerosal-loaded flu vaccine shot, AND, with the mother likely receiving a DTaP shot during pregnancy (implemented by the Vaccine Regime over four years ago, taken by an unknown percentage of mothers conned into taking it!) - with the toxic excipients of THESE shots also crossing the placenta into the fetus.

Truth about the America's Vaccine Dogma is far stranger than fiction -- now inflicting KNOWN carnage, along with Sudden Unexpected Infant Death, to at least 50% of our newborns.

Barry
re: "Why say that 'excessive' vaccines cause autism? Do we honestly know for sure that it doesn't just take one vaccine to trigger autism in some children?"
Perhaps for some children one vaccine could trigger autism, but it takes more than one vaccine per child to trigger an epidemic of autism. Back in the 1960s we received far fewer vaccines and autism was extremely rare. Even today lots of children receive the recommended vaccines without becoming autistic. Susceptibility to harm from even one vaccine is definitely a concern, but still the above statement is true.

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What makes you so sure that the vaccines kids are receiving today, are the same as the ones that kids were receiving back in the 60's?

Either way, that point is kinda mute isn't it?

I mean , if we know that just one vaccine could trigger autism in a child... why on earth would we ever expose even a single child to that risk???

"Back in the 1960s we received far fewer vaccines and autism was extremely rare. Even today lots of children receive the recommended vaccines without becoming autistic."

As with infant formula and the rest of our food supply, what was given then isn't necessarily equivalent to what is given now. And quality control is also a major concern. Who knows what is in each syringe compared to other syringes supposedly containing the same vaccine?

Re the marches. There is a time and place for everything. Inauguration Day was not the time and DC - or anywhere else - was not the place. That display, obviously top down organized by those seeking to disrupt a democratic transition of power, was disgusting.

Barry
re: "Why say that 'excessive' vaccines cause autism? Do we honestly know for sure that it doesn't just take one vaccine to trigger autism in some children?"
Perhaps for some children one vaccine could trigger autism, but it takes more than one vaccine per child to trigger an epidemic of autism. Back in the 1960s we received far fewer vaccines and autism was extremely rare. Even today lots of children receive the recommended vaccines without becoming autistic. Susceptibility to harm from even one vaccine is definitely a concern, but still the above statement is true.

re: "I suspect that most if not all of those women marching and condemning pres. Trump are hopeless vaccine injured, debrained zombies. They looked as such to me."
So much for unity. This is the quality of discourse that shatters attempts at unity. I say a lot of bad things about Trump, but I really try not to disparage my fellow parents. We all have different opinions based on our experiences. Many people have huge valid concerns about Trump. Not everyone's life revolves around vaccine injury, and even those for whom vaccine injury is a huge issue are also very concerned about other aspects of the new administration which are of major significance. Many people are totally unaware of the problems with vaccines and we could focus on educating them rather than maligning them.

Our county case manager told me the other day that the legislature is working on setting up laws to permit parents or guardians to set up ABLE accounts for our autistic children. It's not great, it means that parents have to set aside as much as possible, up to $100,000, for the use of their autistic children after they die (or before, I guess). They can put in up to $14,000 a year. Apparently there are Medicaid programs to pay up to a thousand a month for an in-home caregiver for the autistic person. Our case manager thought it might work if C lived here in our house with the caregiver and another disabled person living here who would have to pay rent. Not to my daughter, as that would put her above the cut-off line for SS and Medicaid (a thousand dollars in her bank account), but I think it's going to be possible to set up a company which could receive the rent payments without disqualifying the autistic person from federal and state aid. Erin said the purpose of ABLE was so that the autistic would not have to eke out their lives in poverty. I had already decided the special needs trusts were worthless, and you couldn't even specify what the funds invested in them had to be used for. Erin agreed and said not to bother with a special needs trust.

This is all a work in progress, and I don't know what they're eventually going to do to give legal compensation to the vaccine-damaged, at least three million apiece, right? and to give all autistic people decent living conditions regardless of their parents' ability to start ABLE accounts for them.

There's a terrific book explaining MANY resources for living accommodations, work, caregivers, etc., in Susan Senator's Autism Adulthood, just published last year. I found out about the Medicaid program to pay caregivers a thousand a month, neither the case manager nor our speech therapist had ever heard of it. We need a website to make sure that autism parents learn about these resources and use them.

I always appreciated that Dr. Rimland was intellectually open to all parents' observations (I saw in a video him say his son personally never received any vaccines

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None that he was aware of.

Babies are taken from their mothers for several hours following child birth. During which time the parents have no idea what's being administered to them.

And that's not even to suggest that the nurses are complicit in something evil. Many probably think that simply know better, at that they're doing something good, which no parent in their right mind would ever object to.

Bernie was one of the first, and Trump is the latest. They know the truth.

I'm delighted to see it. We know he's not a priest, nor can he change things alone, and it may be too late for our American dreams, but he's a step in the right direction. Obama did nothing for 8 years and Clinton would have done nothing for 8 more.

In my last post I meant to say that unless someone invents the magic pill my daughter will remain significantly impaired for the rest of her life. Increasing the funding and services for her is what is most important to me. I haven't heard Trump speak to these issues. Maybe implicating vaccines is the first step but at some point the money has to follow. I agree that under Obama the little amount of resources dedicated to autism was completely wasted. I'd be more optimistic if Trump did away with his border wall fantasy and pledged the trillions that boondoggle will cost towards services and put someone like Katie Wright in charge of getting those funds to the places where they will be best used.

I hope that President Trump will take an interest in autism. Most autistic children do not recover enough to become engaged in useful work. It is important to fight back against the neurodiversity movement, supported by mainstream medical authority to avoid malpractice lawsuits.

On the evening of President Trump's inauguration I left a comment on the new White House website, https://www.whitehouse.gov . A few years ago I contacted Obama on this website, and received a form-letter response about his efforts to "level the playing field for all people with disabilities." Senator Elizabeth Warren responded with the same line. Preventing disabilities was of no concern.

David, it will take more than one person to take on the system. I'm not sure what power Trump can give RFK Jr. Can he grant him subpoena power? Can he order hearings without the approval of Congress? Can he unilaterally change the VCIP program to place additional liability on vaccine makers? I don't think so. Is Trump's nominee for HHS going to push this agenda? Is Congress? I don't see that happening. Will he Tweet about autism from time to time? Maybe, in between his tweets attacking the press and patting himself on the back. All that will do is give the Big Pharm shills another reason to attack anyone who questions the current schedule as anti-vaccine. My daughter is already injured and unless someone invents the maj. I've spent the last 18 years fighting legally through IDEA and insurance and otherwise to try and get her a fraction of the support she will need after I'm dead. We have set up a non-profit treatment center because the schools we had to choose from were underfunded and clueless. Trump tweeting about autism while his cabinet weakens the all ready inadequate supports will do nothing for my girl. The only thing that is going to help as this point is a big pile of money placed with an agency that knows what to do with it. Again, I hope I'm wrong about Trump. I still find him a complete egomaniac who is totally unqualified to lead.

@ David M Burd :
I suspect that most if not all of those women marching and condemning pres. Trump are hopeless vaccine injured, debrained zombies. They looked as such to me. This is a great American tragedy. Tomorrow they will become mothers and will happily sacrifice their babies for profits of pharmaceutical-medical mafias. Likewise, they allow themselves to be poisoned with HPV vaccines. Even Madonna looked like zombie as she was unable to say from her own mind even two simple sentences. She read from a piece of paper "I am with you, I am angry and want to burn the White House". Who wrote it and ordered her to read?

I always appreciated that Dr. Rimland was intellectually open to all parents' observations (I saw in a video him say his son personally never received any vaccines) even as so many become defensive and don't even perform any reflection of the plausibility of a connection with vaccination. It always gave me confidence that he was likely to promote the best information available without prejudice as he courageously and candidly spoke about the role of vaccination in the rise (epidemic) of autism prevalence.

Thank you, also, to all the many activists who work so hard to protect our children where many more fear to attempt intervention.

Aimee: " I'm baffled as to what has happened with ARI, the non-profit he founded. The issue seems to have vanished from their website and discussion. I don't even see much about "recovery" let alone "cure" any more.Anyone know what's going on? What is happening to Dr. Rimland's legacy? "

Neurodiversity happened. And Valerie Paradiz joined the ARI and married Steve Edelson which might have had something to do with it.

"Valerie Paradiz, an autism rights campaigner who runs the ASPIE (Autistic Strength, Purpose and Independence in Education) School in Boiceville, New York. However, she says, "we are at a wonderful turning point where all these isolated grass-roots efforts are beginning to congeal." This week, on 18 June, the movement will find its fullest expression yet with the first annual Autistic Pride Day. The slogan: "acceptance not cure"."

"Five months ago, the Combating Autism Act was passed by Congress, with the government authorising $1bn to be spent on research, including genetic screening. Among those trying to take a different approach is Valerie Paradiz, who has Asperger's syndrome. She founded the School for Autistic Strength, Purpose and Independence in Education (Aspie) in New York State when her son Elijah, who also has AS, was a child."... "Autism, she says, is "not a pathological condition or a disease, but a way of life that possesses a culture and history all its own". "

Valerie Paradiz was also one of the directors of GRASP (Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership) and is currently on the board of Autism Speaks.

Cherry Misra: "I just figured they had been penetrated. If you dont care about the cause of autism, then you dont care about all those kids who are going to suffer".

I hope the anti-vaccine stance of the new Prex will change the situation for all of us who have been hurt by vaccines. I hope the man is not just a wild card. I hope he doesn't in fact turned into the joker instead. Bobby Kennedy has his heart in the right spot. The real difference will be made by the choice of judges that can turn over Bruesewitz v. Wyeth. It concerns me deeply that this subject is so intractable. Bernie was a real hero. I hope that people come to their senses again and take science as a gift that can make a real difference. Right now the Congress seems to be full of do-nothing people who also only have their own skin in the game and do not think of the depth to which you have to go to find the culprit of shoddy thinking. I am looking forward to a time when people can put their own interests aside and look for the truth. If there in anything that needs to be done, it is change how our children are educated. Please, elucidate on the incompetence and unethical behavior of Betsy DeVos. She was the CEO for Amway. Their business model was shameful and one of their products cause me to go into labor prematurely and what I got was a child who never talked and was never able to take care of himself. Education needs to be lead by someone who knows the subject, who has been part of the school system in some form, and who has actually heard of the Americans with Disability Act. DeVos is unqualified. The fact that Trump nominated her does not say much other than that he rewarded a huge donor.

I spent three hours today at the "women's protest" on the DC Mall - not a semblance of intelligent discourse - and Zero Awareness of the horror of vaccines' carnage. Of course the major percentage of Protesters were ignorant teenage women/girls goosestepping to CDC's and NPR's cadence.

But, that's what AoA and its Allies are up against -- total ignorance exemplified by all mainstream propaganda condemning anything President Trump will try to do.

A pretty good week in DC and a rather smooth transition. Thankfully, they did not crank up WW 3 before Trump took office.

President Trump would rather work than go to a party ... and I would not be surprised if you call the White House number at 5 in the morning he might answer the phone. Not sure of all the power with executive orders, but he can also veto things to put pressure to get some proper investigations going.

He can invite Dr. Thompson to the White House and discuss I assume “white guys in white coats” trashing Autism data on Black children.... somehow “totally missed” by our previous President.

What could be any ... more unifying ... than ending a 25 year medical fraud / 50 times more common than polio in his first 100 days ???

I believe our new President will exceed our expectations, and take on our issue. He is the only person we have elected to such high office, who has been open-minded, been on our side, and even been vocal on the subject, prior to being elected. That he has met with Dr. Wakefield, RFK, Jr., and others pre and post election should be noted duly and celebrated.

Contrast that with our prior President, then Senator, who refused to stop his limousine for a disabled, vaccine-injured, young man on a lawn crowded with men, women and children with signs asking for vaccination choice, on his way to a Democratic fundraiser held in his honor in NJ. Did our prior Commander-in-chief ever listen to or invite anyone from our side to visit him in his Senate office, or later, in the White House? If he did, I sure never heard a peep about it.

For years Donald Trump, the wildly successful businessman, has been saying that he believes vaccines cause autism. He has not been inconsistent or waivered in his statement, either. While I understand that patience is thin, and we all want to see immediate results, change isn't going to happen in a day, especially considering the intense opposition to anything that counters and threatens the mantra, "Vaccines are safe and effective, and they save lives." Pharma has been building an army of propagandists for decades. Let's hope our new President builds "a much bigger army," of truth-seekers, truth-compilers, and truth-disseminators. I plan to keep President Trump in my prayers. He now officiates over one third of our government-- the executive branch. We should all be reaching out to him to see how we can help him to achieve our hopes and dreams.

Sometimes it takes the battery of "Excessive Vaccinations" to cause deadly childhood cancers stemming from the 50 year old aborted fetal cells in the live vaccines that shed illnesses to others. The aborted cells have the ability to create tumors. Sometimes it takes only one shot which is a kind of misnomer as the one shot usually contains at least 3 parts as in the DPaT, diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis combined into one needle with many excipients and adjuvants included. The vaccines-all of them contain a variety of Aluminum, or Thimerosal/Mercury, cancerous Formaldehyde, cells of Pigs rats dogs cows (With Leukemia cells) monkeys insects, ammonium salts, ether, MSG, coal tar derivatives, deadly peanut oils leading to anaphylactic shock and food allergies.. Not a single ingredient is safe-each one alone is poisonous all by itself.I am waiting for recent data (As mentioned by Shawn S.) that is beginning to show that Autism is growing to 1 in 10 children in the younger age groups of now.As I said before this must make it into Mainstream News in order for it to be stopped and turn back around. When Andy, Polly, RFk made it to the ball, I danced along besides them in "My Way.."

Thank You Dan, for the memory of Bernie Rimland. It was the smallpox vaccine as an infant for us which stopped development for our baby daughter, not understanding what happened to her ... so scary ...

What a three-ring circus this has been for the past almost 50 years. Thank god for the idea of teaching her to read very early, patterning and the vegan diet ... the reading really promoted speech.

Hey Mike, Im pretty much on the same page as you, but this is totally terrific- Trump keeping autism in the limelight. This is just like the tobacco days- After years of the issue not going away, one by one people think," Why isnt this issue dead? it does seem like it could be possible" All it takes is for that curious person to click on a link to something like the Vaxxed bus tour - and well its ONE LESS naive , gullible human being . One less smiling face in a doctors office paying for the vaccine that pays for someone's new yacht,/racehorse/Salvador Dali painting

@Aimee Doyle, Thanks for asking that- I had wondered the same thing. I just figured they had been penetrated. If you dont care about the cause of autism, then you dont care about all those kids who are going to suffer- who could have been saved if someone told their parents the cause.

Vaccines can cause or worsen autism and investigating that connection is very important - I am glad to see that the issue is finally getting some attention. However, the vaccine issue is primarily one of prevention.

Our kids - the ones who are already damaged - need more than prevention. They need serious research into effective treatment and therapy, recovery and cure. They need a fully funded IDEA for appropriate education and related therapies such as OT, Speech, etc. Currently IDEA is an unfunded mandate, and I don't know of a state that is fully in compliance with IDEA (Betsy DeVos seems to know nothing about IDEA). I understand this area of the law well - as a mom who has 20 years' experience with IDEA through my autistic son and as an attorney who has represented special needs kids in Maryland, DC, and Virginia. As our kids grow, if they aren't recovered, they will need SSI through Social Security, employment and housing supports and services, recreational opportunities. Approximately 2/3 of the autism spectrum - and my son falls into this group - will need lifelong care and support. Even the highest functioning need some services. These services and supports for adults, in Maryland, are paid through the Medicaid Waiver. Funding is inadequate and our Developmental Disabilities Administration has a very long waiting list for adults who need services.

None of these issues has been mentioned by Trump or his potential cabinet members. I don't think the private sector will pay for what our kids need as they struggle to grow and learn. There's no profit in it. And the recovery rate for kids with autism is low - so a lot of kids will need SSI, IDEA, adult services. I don't know the exact figures for full recovery from autism, but I personally never have met a kid who has been recovered, although I have read about them.

I've always called my son's autism "environmental autism" since it wasn't inherited. Nice to know I was right. Then during a discussion with my son neurologist, when we were discussing the new vaccine law that put four to six shots in one, he asked, "How many vaccines do we string together before what we put into our kids becomes simply toxic? Not sure, but I think that time has come. Or maybe past when we decided it was better to make the MMR shot one, instead of three like we have now. We all survived single shots, so would our children. Thank God we now have a president that would at least listen to Autism parents.

I think it's important to remember that "excessive" vaccinations are not the only problem. I reacted with encephalitis to my first DPT at three months old and it caused Asperger's. My brother reacted the same way to his. My daughter reacted to the hep-B vaccine at less than one day old (given without permission) with encephalitis and autism. My brother's son reacted with encephalitis and Asperger's to his vaccines, also he was born with a strep infection which left him in the ICU for over a week. It's unclear to what extent the DTaP booster at 18 months which erased her only words contributed to the autism diagnosed at 20 months. The point is is that it's not the case that kids can take one dose of a vaccine with little danger, and it's only "excessive" that gets you into trouble. Any dose of any vaccine can disable or kill. Still not saying that no one should ever get any vaccine, but everyone must be very aware of the risks before they get it or them.

"I think our collective minds were pretty much blown when he summoned Bobby to the Tower and sent him down with some sort of message, garbled or tentative as it may have been, that he intends to tackle vaccines and autism and that people like Bobby are going to play a major role."

Wrong, Dan. Speak for yourself. My mind was not collectively blown when Trump spoke with RFK about a vaccine safety commission. Trump is an outsider who mentioned the autism problem repeatedly on the campaign trail.

Only those attached to identity politics would fail to notice that. Anyone on AOA who voted for Hillary remains seriously deluded. Could you imagine HER convening a vaccine safety commission??

Clearly bogus climate change science cooked up by Club of Rome elitists to tax every breath we take ranks higher than poisoning directly entire generations of children. With world population set to crash (who's having children anymore?), it's all one big nasty joke on humanity...kinda like vaccines.

I agree. The motives of inviting RFK to a meeting, Andy to the ball and previous mentions by Trump himself will call attention to the issue. Say what you will about Barron, I believe the visuals speak for themselves. Finally, deep down inside I feel that there is going to be more light shed on autism in 2017.

“The autism epidemic is real, and excessive vaccinations are the cause.” Bernard Rimland.

Dr. Rimland has always been one of my personal heroes. But I'm baffled as to what has happened with ARI, the non-profit he founded. The issue seems to have vanished from their website and discussion. I don't even see much about "recovery" let alone "cure" any more.

that the autism epidemic is real, and excessive vaccinations are the cause.

*******

Why say that 'excessive' vaccines cause autism? Do we honestly know for sure that it doesn't just take one vaccine to trigger autism in some children?

Saying that excessive vaccines cause autism, implies that giving less vaccines to children will somehow be the solution to this problem. Is that really the message that we've worked so hard to get out to future generations of parents ?

The truth has to be the whole truth, and our message has to be honest no matter who it offends.

As an unsuspecting new parent, the honest message that I would have appreciated is:

" Vaccines can cause autism. And if you're going to give any of them to your children, you do so with the risk of playing Russian Roulette with THEIR future."

Really wish I could buy into the whole Trump is our Savior sentiment that is sweeping through the autism community. From where I sit, it is far more likely that he will oversee sweeping cuts to Medicaid that so many children and adults rely on for services than do anything meaningful on the vaccine issue. Also, his pick for Education didn't give me a warm and fuzzy when talking about IDEA. Leave it to the States? You have got to be kidding me. Hope I'm wrong but I've never seen Trump as more than a con man.

The esteemed Dr Bernie Rimland .. founder and director of the Autism Research Institute .. opposing the then pending Combat Autism Act:

" I strongly oppose endorsing "The (Pretending to) Combat Autism Act" unless it includes clear and explicit language supporting meaningful research on the role of vaccines and mercury as plausible causes of the autism epidemic.

The proposed Combating Autism legislation is as sincerely dedicated to combating autism as O.J. Simpson was to finding the "real killers" of his ex-wife Nicole.

The fear that failure to pass the CAA will lead to a catastrophic failure to fund future autism research vastly overestimates the value of government funded research. Most such research is only of academic interest, which gathers dust on library shelves and advances the "publish or perish" aspirations of academic researchers. Is there any evidence whatever that more than a miniscule percent of government funded research has produced any positive and useful benefits for autistic children and their families, or ever will? If you are aware of any examples showing such research is serving a truly useful purpose, please let me know."

Unfortunately .. history has validated EVERYTHING Dr Rimland warned Congress of .. especially his prescient warning about the "vastly overrated value of government funded research" .. which is nothing more than of "academic interest" .. serving only to advance the .. "publish or perish aspirations of academic researchers".

I suspect Dr. Rimland would have been encouraged to hear President Trump's inaugural speech .. wherein he stated:

"Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost."

I cannot express how frustrating it has been over the last decade .. as autism increased from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 45 today .. receiving the same generic "canned" response from my elected representatives in Washington, D.C. .. letter after letter .. year after year .. in which each are quick to INFORM me ... THEY supported the Combat Autism Act.

To my ears .. President Trump was speaking specifically to MY elected representatives .. all of whom have been in office for ten years or more .. when he spoke of that .. "small group in our nation's Capital who have reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost".

No better example of the "people bearing the cost than the Combat Autism Act" .. NONE.

Barron Trump looked on as his dad placed his hand on the Bibles and took the oath of office. That image sent a hope-o-gram to me: vaccine injured children may be front and center now. I hope to see Barron again beside his dad, maybe in Bernie's empty chair, at that table with Andy, Bobby, Mark, and Barbara. The kids are coming.

I just received an email from my allopathic-indoctrinated sister (for years a pediatric nurse, thence into pediatric nutrition, but still keeping faith in the goodness of vaccines, ala Hillary). She says I am making "inflammatory statements" when I urge her to REALLY STUDY vaccines' toxicities with their being THE principle and direct cause of the autism spectrum, and scores of other permanent child disabilities.

It is extremely pertinent that her three lovely, very healthy smart children all were born in the early/mid 1980's, before the onslaught of toxic vaccines that sky-rocketed up beginning 1991.

What a monumental country and family destroying mess our Nation's autocratic/dishonest Health Leaders have wrought! To speak truth most of us risk losing our own otherwise loving family connections --- but we have no choice. Trump MUST lead the way with a palace guard of Wakefields and Rimlands and Kennedys and AoA Allies to guard him.